Sunday, 14 December 2014

■ In
this post we will present Tell Gomel, the site chosen by our project for a future excavation.

The
site of Tell Gomel
stands in the heart of the Navkur Plain, an alluvial plain that lies
south of the Erbil-Dohuk road, between Jebel Maqloub and the
Bardarash region and the Al-Khazir river to the east.

The
focal point of
settlement throughout the Navkur Plain was the urban site of Tell
Gomel, located on the River Gomel near the modern town of Kalakchi,
which probably corresponds to the Assyrian Gammagara (referred to in
the Jerwan B Inscription of Sennacherib as an “URU”, a city). The
preliminary survey of the Tell Gomel site conducted by IAMA
documented the existence of a settlement sequence ranging from the
Chalcolithic to the Ottoman period (c. 5000 BC- early 20th century
AD).

The
site, which now covers a total area of about 16 ha, features an
elevated upper town (about 40 m above the surrounding plain) that
dominates an extensive lower town. Due to its large size and position
in the centre of the plain, Gomel must undoubtedly have played an
important role in this region – presumably as its political and
economic centre.

The
area around Gomel is of great interest because of its central
position in the heart of the Navkur Plain, the
most intensively settled landscape in the LoNAP area. This territory,
with abundant water and fertile soils, constituted a trade-route hub
from the Late Chalcolithic onwards. In later periods the area was
strategic for commercial routes, but also for military transit and –
in the case of the Neo-Assyrian empire – for communications between
the Turkish Upper Tigris regions rich in resources and the principal
Assyrian cities.

Furthermore,
Sir Aurel Stein in his Limes Report (1938-1939, published in 1985)
proposed that
the battlefield of Gaugamela was in the plain surrounding Tell Gomel,
where in 331 BC Alexander the Great defeated Darius III, thus
definitively conquering the Persian Empire.

An
excavation here will throw light on its long settlement history and
yield well-stratified
typological series of pottery, lithics and other archaeological
artefacts, that will also be dated absolutely by means of a
programme of radiometric date determinations. This will give us
stratigraphic and typological reference sequences, enabling us to
better identify the surface finds gathered during survey work, refine
the dating of surveyed sites and thus produce more reliable
distribution maps of sites divided according to chronological period.

Thursday, 2 October 2014

Prof.
Daniele Morandi Bonacossi was recently interviewed by the Italian
television "Udinese Channel" and the newspaper "Corriere della Sera". Here you can watch the full interview about our
work in Iraqi Kurdistan and read the article on the illicit traffic
of artifacts from Iraq.

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Welcome
to the new blog of the Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project!

The
LoNAP team created this space with the specific aim of
involving not just those who study the field, but everyone interested
in the project and to share the results of our research in an easy
and accessible manner.

The
blog contains information about the project and the team, as well as
photos from the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

We
have also a page (News) which is regularly updated
with talks and events that might be of interest to you all.

We
will make an effort to keep the blog
constantly adjourned, especially during our days in the field, and
plan to show you ongoing operations, new discoveries, finds, places
and fun moments.